AlH3 has great potential as a source of hydrogen for fuel cells and other technologies. AlH3 is made out of aluminum, which is relatively inexpensive, and has a high weight percent hydrogen when hydrided. Heretofore, the ability to regenerate the aluminum metal back into aluminum hydride has proven to be too expensive for large scale commercial use.
For instance, AlH3 can be formed using very high pressure conditions (105 bars). While such conditions can be achieved in laboratory and small scale demonstration conditions, the high pressures, competing reactions, and overall energy budget have prevented high pressure alane formation from being widely considered for production of alane for a hydrogen storage, fuel cells and other hydrogen energy applications.
Additional conditions for alane formation require plasma conditions or the use of non-economical chemical reactions. Under all these conditions, there are competing reactions that can lead to unstable phases of alane formation and hence generation of an end product that is unsuitable for large scale commercial production of alanes which is needed for fuel cells in the automotive industry.
Accordingly, there remains room for improvement and variation within the art.